Identification Guide to Eastern Box Turtles

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Identification Guide to Eastern Box Turtles There are two regional groups of box turtles in the United States (eastern and western). The Eastern Group has - Highly variable shell pattern Short Interfemoral - Keeled carapace seam - Rectangular 1st marginal scute - Short interfemoral seam Ornate box turtle - Carapace is higher toward rear (Terrapene ornata Eastern box - All hind toes are similar ornata) turtle Three toed Desert box turtle box turtle (Terrapene Rectangular ornata luteola) Gulf coast Florida 1st marginal box turtle box scute turtle Range of box turtles in the United Stated. The Carolina (eastern) group (colored in orange, yellow, green, and periwinkle) lives in the east and the Ornata (western) group (purple and blue) lives in the west. The grey shaded area in the middle is where their ranges overlap. [Map based on the Davidson College Herpetology Lab Box Turtle Webpage. www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/Contribute/box%20turtle/boxmain.htm] Four subspecies comprise the Eastern Group: Three toed box turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis) has a tan/olive Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) has a black/brown shell with yellow/orange spots on head and limbs and three toes on carapace with irregularly shaped blotches of yellow/orange. It has four each hind foot. Males can have red heads. It ranges throughout toes on each hind foot and ranges throughout the eastern U.S. from central U.S. (green on map above). Georgia to Maine and west to Illinois (orange on map above). Gulf coast box turtle (Terrapene carolina major) is the largest of the extant box turtles and is semiaquatic. It has a dark carapace, flared Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) has a dark carapace marginal scutes, and four toes on each hind foot. Its head color ranges with radiating yellow lines. Its head often has yellow lines as well. It from dark to white in older males. It occurs along the Gulf coast from has 3-4 toes on each hind foot, and occurs in southeast Georgia and Louisiana to northern Florida (periwinkle on map above). Florida (yellow on map above). Many of the subspecies can be highly variable, and where their ranges overlap, they interbreed, making it difficult to distinguish one subspecies from another. For more information, visit the NEPARC website (www.pwrc.usgs.gov/neparc). Poster design by Liz Willey. Photo credits: Mike Jones and Liz Willey. Information based on: Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2001. North American box turtles: a natural history. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, USA..

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